NYCC: Watch the First Trailer for Powers

Brian Michael Bendis and the team behind Powers arrived at New York Comic-Con today to talk about the upcoming PlayStation series and show off the new trailer for the show. Based on the comic by Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming, Powers stars Sharlto Copley as Christian Walker and Susan Heyward as Deena Pilgrim, homicide detectives who investigate cases revolving around superheroes and supervillains.

What’s most striking about this trailer, and the clip that was played later in the panel, is how adult the show seems. In the short clip, Walker is telling Pilgrim about a certain girl he once knew who, after “an exchange of fluids,” suddenly was able to briefly fly. “You’re talking about girls #@$%&!# you off to get powers,” she deadpans. To which he replies, “Not just girls.”

Bendis explained that the show -- which has had a long development period where it almost came to fruition on FX at one point with a different cast and creative team -- is an examination of both the superhero genre and crime fiction “from the dead body up.” He promised that it is indeed an intense series that often is a “hard R.”

The production just got underway, and some of the cast were literally filming last night (they’re on episode three right now). But Comic-Con called!

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“The whole time we were developing at other places, it was nice but there was always something a little off,” Bendis recalled of the earlier attempts to translate the comic to the screen. “When Sony came to us, it was very exciting to us. There have been a lot of cable channels that have put their signature show on the air, and them offering that to us, it was a big deal. This is a big cast and a big budget!”

The premise is that Copley’s character used to be a Power, but now he’s a regular guy like all the rest of us. “He is down here with us, trying to figure out what that is and what he can do,” said Bendis. “So what he doesn’t realize yet is that being a police officer is a massively heroic thing to do, more so than being a Power. And now being down here, he’s seeing some of the repercussions of the Powers.”

Bendis also explained that the series is being approached like a 10-chapter novel, and that he is actually going to script one of the last two episodes (he’s also an executive producer on the show). Additionally, the series won’t follow the comic precisely, but rather will pull from various elements from the book.

“What I always wanted from the show was not a word for word adaptation, because they’re not the same medium,” he said. “We wanted the show to be its own entity. … So we’ll cherry-pick from the books the stuff that will make the best TV show.”

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Izzard added that “we’re trying not to be an interpretation but to be an impression of the essence of the books.”

The actor also said that he feels this lets him take his character on a slightly different path.

“So I’m allowed to give it a certain artistic direction,” he said. “I think having superpowers in the real world, we’re not trying to save the world or destroy the world, we’re not. We’re just in this f#@ked up world. And it’s really a metaphor of what celebrity is, I think. I liken it to magical Olympians. What would it be like to have that extra ability.”

The cast and crew also confirmed that we will see flashbacks to Walker’s life as a Power. Additionally, one interesting idea is that we as an audience will stay on the ground. It’s from Walker and Pilgrim’s point of view, so even if a Power flies past, we -- and our leads -- will be stuck down here on Earth, watching, rather getting camera shots up in the sky with the Powers.

Indeed, Pilgrim sounds like the Scully of the show -- the one who approaches everything “with a cocked eyebrow,” according to Bendis. “She’ll be asking the questions the audience asks.”

Heyward said that when we meet Pilgrim, she’s at a time when she’s quite wounded. “She’s coming out of a situation kind of looking for a new home,” she said. “And I definitely identify with that search, trying to find a place where you belong.”

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Browning and Rulin both play younger characters with emerging powers. “I feel like I’m still discovering where my character is going,” said Browning. “Just as Logan is discovering what this world is, Zora is discovering what her world is. She has natural aptitude and natural powers that are amazing, and she’s trained and honed it, but I don’t think she knows what her impact on the world can be.”

Bendis said that both Calista and Zora represent the younger generation and what could happen next in the Powers world.

Another intriguing element of the show involves Michelle Forbes (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Battlestar Galactica), who plays Retro Girl, the most famous hero in this world and the best example of the celebrity Powers culture that Izzard was referring to.

“What’s cool about her is that we get to build this whole world around her,” said Bendis. “Retro Girl is the most famous superhero -- the Beyonce of superheroes.” And since she’s existed for decades, the show will incorporate comics art and illustrations that represent her popularity over the years: 1960s Vogue style images, comics about her from the Silver Age and the Modern Age (and all created by actual comics artists -- and friends of Bendis’), a Saturday morning in-show cartoon, and more. Oeming, co-creator of the comic and also an executive producer on the series, will also provide art that will be seen onscreen.

During the Q&A, a fan did raise one point that no doubt many others were thinking, however: What about people who don’t have a PlayStation?

Bendis said the good news is millions of people have them. And besides, “I think the point from Sony’s point of view is they would like you to [get] a PlayStation.”